If you ask us, opals are the best gemstone. Not only are they breathtakingly beautiful with vivid colors and dynamic displays, they're versatile and iconic, giving them a timeless beauty. Since opals offer an amazing value, many people use opals as the foundation for their jewelry collection and rightly so. But opals offer more than just brilliant beauty.
The world of opals is filled with beautiful pieces, dynamic stones and even amazing historical stories. We have done some digging and found five famous opals worth celebrating. Each of these amazing gemstones serve as a real-life reminder of how arresting and spectacular these gemstones and the environments that create them truly are.
The Olympic Australis Opal
The Olympic Australis Opal
In 1956 the mining town of Coober Pedy in South Australia became ground zero for an amazing discovery. In the Eight Mile opal field located in the outback of the town, an opal was found that was literally one for the history books. The opal uncovered that day was found at 30 feet below the Earth’s surface. Once it was fully unearthed it was measured at 11 inches long, 4.75 inches thick and 4.5 inches wide. When weighed, it tipped the scales at an impressive 7.6 pounds. Ultimately valued around AUD $2.5 Million the opal is currently kept in Sydney, at the offices of Altmann & Cherny Ltd.
Today, the record set by the Olympic Australis Opal remains unbroken. The town of Coober Pedy is often referred to as the Opal Capital of the World due to the quality and quantity of the opals found there to this day.
The Aurora Australis Black Opal
The Aurora Australis Black Opal
The Aurora Australis may not be the world’s largest opal, but it is the world’s most valuable Black Opal. It was originally discovered in 1938 when it was unearthed in an old sea bed located in New South Wales at Lightning Ridge. Once fully excavated, it was sold as a semi-rough opal to Altmann & Cherny, an Australian opal specialist company. The company had the stone polished and cut to an oval shape and currently display it in their showroom.
This breathtaking gemstone is noteworthy thanks to its dynamic and rich coloring as well as its harlequin pattern. There is also a distinct impression of a starfish on the back of the stone, which further adds to its value. The dominant blue and green colors inspired the company to name it after the bright Southern Lights which are similar to the Northern Lights, the atmospheric event that results in vivid and bright dancing light across the sky.
The Black Prince Opal
The Black Prince Opal
Originally known as the Harlequin Prince Opal, the Black Prince is one of the most unique opals in the world. Originally found in 1915 by Urwin and Brown, this opal was instantly recognized as being something of true and rare beauty. The opal weighs 181 carats and boasts a distinctive flag pattern on one side with red coloring on the opposite side. Ir was bought by the Museum of Natural History in New York where it was on display for many years. Years later, it became part of a collection held at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery, Los Angeles and was eventually stolen (along with another opal - the ‘Pride of Australia') and remains missing.
Halley’s Comet Opal
Halley’s Comet
Most of us know about the famous Halley’s Comet which is visible from Earth every 75 years or so. The beauty and rarity of that even inspired the name for this opal when it was discovered in 1986, the same year the infamous comet was visible on Earth. This is another gemstone that was found at Lightning Yard in New South Wales, Australia and has been verified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest uncut black opal in the world. Weighing nearly 2,000 carats, it is about the size of a man’s fist and is thought to have been formed roughly 20 million years ago.
Eric the Pliosaur
Eric the Pliosaur
Don’t worry – you didn’t read this last headline wrong. Our final entry on this list of famous opals is an interesting story, to say the least. The fossilized bones of this Pliosaur were first discovered in 1987 by an Australian miner who couldn’t help but notice the fossilized remains had a distinctive sheen and coloring only associated with opals. Ultimately he found most of the fossilized remains had undergone the opalization process, making this a noteworthy find right from the start.
The miner eventually sold the remains to an Australian businessman who wanted to restore the skeleton. He worked with a reconstructionist and the story is that the two named the dinosaur Eric after ‘Eric the Half a Bee’, a song by Monty Python. During the restoration process, the reconstructionist actually found a opalized fish inside Eric’s stomach which was appropriately named ‘Wanda’.
But fossil restoration and reconstruction is an expensive hobby and ultimately, the businessman began looking to sell Eric off. While there was a great deal of interest from fellow dinosaur experts, quite a few people from the jewelry industry also began showing interest. Their goal was to take the bones and turn them into opal jewelry. Many people were critical of this use of Eric’s remains and it is a debate that continues in some circles of the opal, jewelry and paleontologists. Ultimately, however, the debate became one of principle only as the Australian Museum bought Eric and had him on permanent display through 2016.
These five amazing opals serve as a reminder of just how amazing the world can be. The process of opalization requires very specific elements and environments to come together which is why opals are found only in very specific regions. When we look at these gemstones both in their natural and polished states, we are bearing witness to how the creative process creates art organically and how the world we live in has many gifts for us, if we are simply able to recognize and care for them.